Abstract: Surprisingly, the window as a device enabling the development of realistic descriptions of nature is not exploited in this novel. The Rougons only perceive the nocturnal landscape in a phantasmagorical way, on a terrace. Silvère and Miette look at nature through an imaginary window. This refusal of realism finds its most flagrant expression in Félicité. With her, the window even becomes worrying and ominous, and then an agent in the death of Peirotte.
